California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176
PHILIP W. HASTIE. An extensive farmer, Philip W. Hastie is located on a ranch of one hundred
acres three miles south of Fowler, Fresno county, which was originally a portion of a four
hundred acre tract which he has sold off in small tracts, the whole being known as the Iowa
Colony. He was born in Warren county, Iowa, December 21, 1 851 , a son of Andrew Hastie,
who emigrated from his birthplace near Edinburgh, Scotland, to the United States and located
in Ohio, near Columbus. He engaged as a railway contractor, some of the first construction
throughout that locality being his work. He went to Iowa in 1850 and located in Warren county,
where he engaged in farming. He is now retired from the active cares of life and makes his
home in Carlisle, Iowa. His wife, formerly Elizabeth Whittecar. a native of Ohio, died in 1868.
They were the parents of four sons and two daughters, of whom Philip W. Hastie was the
oldest. He was reared in Iowa and educated in the common schools, making his home in that
state until 1873. Coming to California in that year, he spent the two years following in various
parts of the state, in Monterey, Lake Tahoe country, etc. He returned to Iowa in 1876 and
engaged in farming on his father's place. In the fall of 1882 he once more located in California
and on Christmas day of that year accepted the position of superintendent and foreman of the
Iowa and California Fruit Company, located two miles northwest of Fowler, Fresno county, and
consisting of three hundred and twenty acres. This he conducted successfully for two years,
when, in 1884, he engaged in farming independently on rented land. Later he purchased land,
and in the fall of 1885 he bought his present place. This consisted at that time of four hundred
acres three miles south of Fowler and was nothing but a bare and desolate plain. He engaged in
farming and later colonized the tract which was known as the Iowa Colony, having left but one
hundred acres of the original purchase. In the meantime he colonized section 26, and the west
half of section 27, north half of section 21, north half of section 33, and east half of section 29,
and is now engaged in the sale of section 22, all in the vicinity of Fowler. On the Santa Fe
Railroad south of Oleander lie also colonized eleven hundred acres known as the Bowles tract.
In the midst of his other interests during the past sixteen years he has carried on a threshing
machine business, he himself renting four thousand acres devoted to grain. In the wheat panic
of 1893 he lost quite a fortune, which, however, he partially regained in 1895, after which he
quit the business. He then engaged in the cultivation of fruit and helped in the placing of
irrigation ditches. He still retains an interest in real estate operations and is active in all public
movements of the community, where he is an influential member. He is a Republican politically
and during the election of McKinley as president he gave his best efforts toward his support,
being at that time chairman of the Republican committee. He is a member of the Pioneer Club
of Fresno county.